The invention relates to access control and security alarm apparatus and, more particularly, to apparatus of this type in which a central station monitors a plurality of remote facilities.
There is a continuing need to provide security and access control for commercial and residential buildings. Traditional methods using simple burglar alarms and uniformed security guards are becoming increasingly expensive and ineffective.
A method which provides a high level of security at reasonable, cost uses a central station to monitor a number of remote locations which are connected to and communicate with the central station over telephone lines. An example of such a system is that described U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,139 issued May 10, 1977 to Samburg. The system described in this patent is very effective in providing security at a reasonable cost by eliminating the need for uniformed security guards at each remote facility.
Conventional security systems, however may suffer from the failure of users at the remote facilities to perform certain procedures. For example, users sometimes fail to reestablish the most secure condition of the system after requesting authorized entry to the protected area.
This drawback can partially be overcome by increased vigilance on the part of central station monitoring personnel to detect such failures by the user. However, such measures have not been totally effective. Accordingly, an objective of the present invention is an access control and security alarm apparatus which maintains a high level of protection which requires a minimum of action by users at remote facilities.
Since access control and security alarm systems are designed to provide security for both persons and property, such systems must be carefully installed and tested. Furthermore, to maintain a high level of protection and confidence in the system, periodic testing is desirable subsequent to installation. Each sensor must be tested upon installation and periodically thereafter to determine whether it is operating properly. Such testing is performed, for example, on door position sensors by opening the door or entry device and observing if an alarm signal is generated. After such an alarm signal occurs, then the system must be reset before testing the next sensor. Since for maximum security the reset control is not usually located near the sensors, at least two people are usually required to test the entire system. It is therefore a further objective of the present invention to reduce the cost and complexity of such testing.
In prior art access control and security alarm systems having multiple protection zones, electrically locked doors operated in association with identification card readers were often used to provide controlled access by authorized persons to a specific protection zone. However, in such prior art systems, electrically locked doors and associated identification card readers were hard-wired into the systems such that the door and reader could only be associated with a single zone. In commercial buildings where tenants often desire to expand or modify their facilities, such hard-wired systems greatly limit the flexibility of users. It is therefore an additional objective of the invention to provide a multiple-zone access control and security alarm system which can easily associate an electrically locked door with any desired protection zone.
In many buildings for which access control and security protection is desired, remotely operated access control systems are provided which include an electrically locked door and an entry authorization device such as an identification card reader or a numeric keypad. Such systems have been successfully integrated into prior art access control and security alarm systems by wiring the remotely operated access control system to the associated protection zones. Thus, the system was fixedly associated with that zone such that violation of the security of the system would cause an alarm for its associated zone only. This limited flexibility of the entire system, and, once installed, prevents the remotely operated access control system from being easily integrated into another protection zone. Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide an access control and security alarm system having a plurality of protection zones and a plurality of remotely operated access control systems which can be simply and conveniently configured to associate any remotely operated access control system with any protection zone.